SUMMER!!!!!!!!!

Mrs. Rose, my tenth grade English teacher, would be extremely disappointed in me for my excessive use of exclamation points in the title of this entry ("Any more than two and you just seem crazy."), but I feel it entirely necessary. I am so excited that summer is here.

We have had a really busy year. I completely overextended myself (as you can tell by lack of blog entries). I don't feel like each individual kid was overextended, but as a whole, our family was. Not every family works this way, but in this family, pretty much, if one kid has tee ball, then we all go to tee ball. If one kid has dance, we all go. That's not to say we always stay the whole time, but it does mean that everyone is loaded and unloaded from the car quite a lot. Our afternoons were overly full, and I'm happy to take a break from that.

And apparently I am taking that whole "break thing" to the extreme. The kids are signed up for almost nothing this summer. Annalise will do a week of Girl Scout camp -- the funnest, dirtiest camp ever. And Juliette will continue her MyGym class over the summer. But that's it. We plan on doing nothing but playing, exploring, swimming and going on field trips. It's totally my kind of summer. I may be totally regretting this decision in a couple weeks, but for now, it suits us just fine. The fighting has stopped. The bickering, whining, complaining, over-tired melt downs -- all of it has stopped. We are back to going to bed after nine and Zachary, for one, is sleeping in until ten almost every day. It's so lovely! Last night we took a walk to get ice cream after dinner. We are going to make a tradition out of playing at Annalise's school every Wednesday evening. I am going to have a little cooking class with Annalise and three of her friends. We'll have lots of playdates and trips to the park and beach. But we'll also have lots of days like today, where at almost 1:00, three of the four of us are still in our pajamas. To me, this is what summer is all about.

Phooey

Juliette is learning to talk. I know. All babies do it. It really shouldn't be anything special. But it SO IS!! She has had quite a few words for some time now. But now she is in the period of time my mom calls the "language explosion," where new words are coming fast and furious out of that kid's mouth. And, I'm sorry, but it really is adorable. I love that she is able to communicate with us with confidence and we are (sometimes) able to understand her. Today she repeatedly said, "Ogurt", a new one. She was done with her yogurt, but it was like she had to repeat herself over and over so the word would cement itself in her brain. My favorite word is "My shit," which is a sit/chair hybrid. So I get a kick out of a 17 month old cussing. (Ask me some day about Annalise and moving my gramps into a nursing home. More kid cussing. Love it!) And now she is constructing "sentences" like "Mama sit a dow side." (Mama, sit down outside.) This morning she kept pointing and saying "phooey" over and over. I handed her the flower I thought she was talking about. She pushed it down, pointed again and repeated "phooey." Of course! Phone! There were two play cellphones on Annalise's desk and she wanted both. She made her calls ("Papa," "Gama," and "Dada work") and was a happy girl.

She is very proud of herself, too. Of course she is always trying to keep up with the big kids. Last week we went down to Annalise's school to play after dinner with a few other families. The kids had the whole playground to themselves and so Juliette was really able to roam about freely. She didn't look back as she crossed the entire field to join in the huddle with the other kids. When they ran off, she was right behind them. At Annalise's dance rehearsals, she was right up in front, attempting to follow the choreography. It is amazing what happens to a third child sometimes. It seems like sometimes they really embrace that baby role and seem even younger than they are. Not this girl. She wants nothing more than to keep up with "Zachy" and "Seece." And third borns are exposed to things so much earlier. I seriously doubt that many first born 15 month olds are talking about "R2" when they spot R2D2 at the toy store. Maybe some day Juliette will embrace being the baby, but for now, she is daring herself, pushing herself and willing herself to be a big kid. Phooey.